Garden Programming on TV, YouTube, and Beyond

In the depths of winter or sometimes just during my lunchbreak, I'll go online and watch videos to get my garden fix.  Here are some of my favorites, past and present:

The Victorian Kitchen Garden, BBC2 1987 13 part series
Hosted by horticultural lecturer Peter Thoday and master gardener Harry Dodson, the series follows the daily upkeep of an authentic Victorian era kitchen garden, broken into monthly episodes.  If you can get past the poor quality of the film back then, you are in for a real educational treat.  Filmed at the Chilton Foliat estate in Wiltshire, England, the show covers tools, techniques, plants, and the latest scientific advancements at the time. And it's all done by two fine British chaps in three piece suits, who aren't exactly... young.

Edwardian Farm, BBC2 2010 12 part series
A gorgeous little Edwardian Farm in pastoral Devon, England is put back into service, Edwardian style, in this month-by-month program.  Historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn spend a year working the authentic farm as is would have been in the first decade of 20th century Britain. The cast is charming, the scenery to die for (if rolling green landscapes are your thing), and the topics covered are numerous: gardening, cooking, construction, hedging, housework, and animal rearing are all touched upon.  If you like the series, there are several other BBC2 productions along the same lines and with some repeat cast members.

The Edible Garden, BBC 2010 6 part series
Gardener Alys Fowler turns her small urban garden into an intensively planted edible garden in this series. Her goal is to grow all of the fresh produce her family will consume that year.  We watch as she judiciously makes room for more edibles, plans to maintain her garden's cottage feel, and introduces chickens into her scheme.  All the while, her cute little dog parades around and accompanies her on various excursions.  This is the kind of programming that offers inspiring creative projects and realistic goals for any home gardener.

The Victory Garden, PBS 1975-2009 many, many episodes
How could I not mention what is probably the longest running and most influential gardening program ever produced?  It all started back in 1975 with host James Underwood Crockett, a former director of the American Horticultural Society, and ended in 2009 with Jamie Durie, an Australian TV personality and former Chippendale dancer!  I enjoyed watching the final seasons, set in perpetually sunny LA, packed with visits to lush private gardens, usually filled with the most fantastic cacti, yucca, and succulents one could imagine.  I never knew Durie's exciting past, as he was excellent in rattling off the scientific names of almost everything he encountered on the show.

Growing a Greener World, 2010-today, weekly episodes on PBS stations around the country
This is my new weekend garden program for when I'm loafing on the sofa with coffee and a donut.  Although there are many episodes about the home garden, host and producer Joe Lamp'l also tackles larger issues like sustainability, environmental education, and community activism with an emphasis on gardening.  If you like the idea of organic, green, environmentally friendly gardening and landscaping practices, this is the show for you.  Bonus: at the end of each episode, there's a goofy cooking segment that usually leaves me smiling.

Cats Like Fish Toys

Mao Mao really went to town on her toy fish. Sometimes she needs to be encouraged to play and other times she just takes care of it herself. Take that, toy fish!

Springtime Seed Sowing, Inside and Out

Memories of last summer in the Brunswick Street Community Garden (with cat).

I think everyone is anxious for spring this year. Personally, I can't stop thinking about the garden, my planting plans for this year, and my successes (Beefmaster tomatoes) and failures (beets) of last year.   The weather is still a little chilly and unpredictable, but that hasn't stopped me from prepping the garden and sowing seeds. So far I've got purple bunching onions, Amarillo carrots, generic Burpee Nantes carrots, Red Russian kale, Lacinato kale, and the Baker Creek Red Wings lettuce mix in the ground. 

The garden is a lovely place to sit and relax in the spring. Bulbs are coming up, the rose bushes are showing signs of life, and the garden cats are frolicking. After putting in an hour or two of weeding and messing about, I sometimes allow myself ten or fifteen minutes to just relax on the bench and observe. 

Over the weekend I started some more seeds indoors. Can you grow romaine lettuce for transplanting? I'm going to find out. 

This time I repurposed a 3 part clear plastic egg carton by removing the top for use as a tray. The two remaining halves with egg indentations will serve as mini individual greenhouses. 

I poked holes in the bottoms of the egg indentations on one side to allow for drainage. 

And then I hydrated some more Jiffy seed starting peat pellets and squished them into the egg carton greenhouse. 

I put three Baker Creek Red Romaine seeds in each pellet, closed the top, and put the whole thing on the tray. I'm germinating these seeds on top of my refrigerator and will move them to the window once they sprout. 

I'll post an update on all of my seeds next week. 

Preparing the Garden for Spring

How do you prepare the garden for planting?

They're calling for a lot of rain this weekend in northern New Jersey so I thought it would be an opportune time to get the garden ready for the season. It's a good idea to clean out and have some steady rain before sowing any seeds. In the past I've prepped the garden and sowed in the same day and then had really untidy rows once the soil settled. Rain will help settle the soil and make for much neater rows in the long term. This would also be a great time to add some compost to the soil to give everything a boost. I don't have any on hand so I'll  top dress with some later in the season. 

I never cleaned out the plants or the cages at the end of last fall, so that was top of the to-do list today. What else? The fig trees next door left a thick blanket of leaves that had to be cleared out and composted. I plan to replace the trellis so I wanted to disassemble the old one. The brick boarder and the stone pathways also needed attention. And I wanted to divide and replant the garlic bulbs that I forgot to harvest last year (oops).

Now it's ready to get a good soaking this weekend and receive some carrot seeds next week. I admit I did slip in some purple bunching onions from Pinetree Garden Seeds. The packet was from 2012 so who knows what the germination rate will be. 

Baby garlic, divided and transplanted for the 2014 season. 

I dug up this carrot from under the fig leaf blanket and tried it. Yuck. It had no flavor after 9 months in the ground and many days with frozen soil. So I don't recommend overwintering carrots in the ground. 

Seed Starting 2014

It was so cold and snowy this year that I got my seed order in a little late. So, I'm starting them a little late too!  Thankfully Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds processed and shipped my seeds so quickly that I had them in under a week. 

What seeds did I buy?

Sleeping Beauty Melon

Russian Red Kale

Amarillo Carrot

Chinese Red Noodle Bean

Red Wing Lettuce Mix

Philadelphia Fish Pepper

Topepo Rosso Pepper

Black Hungarian Pepper

Red Romaine Lettuce - free gift!

Not everything needs to be started inside, but I wanted to get the three varieties of peppers a head start. 

How do you start seeds inside? It's easy. I repurposed a plastic lettuce box from the grocery store, poked a couple drainage holes in the bottom, and used the plastic lid as a tray. 

I bought Jiffy brand seed starting pellets at the garden store, soaked them in water to expand them to full size, put them in my repurposed lettuce box, and put 2-3 pepper seeds on top. Then I covered the box with plastic wrap and put it by the window. 

Pepper seeds germinate faster in light but some seeds prefer a darker environment. (Baker Creek seed packets have lots of helpful info on the back!) 

I was supposed to start these 8-10 weeks before the last frost date, but I figure better late than never. It's either this or get lazy and buy whatever plants they have at the neighborhood big box store. I really wanted to try some new things this year. 

I'm hoping to grow the Hungarian Black and Philadelphia Fish peppers (both hot peppers) in containers on my balcony. The balcony faces south, gets direct sun all day long, and can get pretty hot. Last year I had a great hot pepper harvest out there despite it being a cool, wet summer. 

Next week?

I'm planting the Amarillo carrots out in the garden. 

Between the Sheets... with Mao Mao

Who doesn't like a little help when making the bed?

Solstice Eve Garden

The temperature outside was in the 50s today so I decided to do one last 2013 garden visit. Most of the garden was still under a blanket of snow but I managed to dig out some late season carrots. 

There were a few greens poking through the snow too so I brought home a mustard green leaf for Mao Mao. She likes to munch on something leafy but she's never tried this flavorful green. I'm not sure she'll like it but I couldn't pass up homegrown food for the kitty. 

Speaking of kitties, all the usual suspects were accounted for in the garden. The furry guy finally looks comfortable. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you loyal MaoMaoKitty readers!

A Christmas Tradition

So many to choose from... But none of these are big enough. 

That's just about the right size. And look at all that character! Can't get that in the local tree lot. 

The happy couple and their tree. 

Beautiful. Just beautiful. 

Let it Snow... Some More!

It's been a snowy couple weeks here in Jersey City. By that I mean it's snowed twice in the last week, it hasn't all melted yet (there are even patches that haven't turned gray), and we're supposed to get a few more inches tonight. This is by far the most snow I've seen before Christmas in this area since I moved here seven years ago. It's great!  And we should have known this was coming because we saw this guy in the fall (he was at least 2.5" long and reallllllly fuzzy):

He was well prepared for a snowy winter so I'm expecting lots more white stuff in the coming months. 

A Calico Cat in Fall Foliage

It's a little late (it's snowing outside right now), but I couldn't resist sharing these wonderful photos of Mao Mao romping in the fall foliage from a few years back.  Who doesn't love seeing a cat surrounded by autumn beauty?